Work Sucks But These Films Don’t!
ENTERTAINMENT | MAHI
Nathan Cosmic (he/him) | @nathan.cosmic (Instagram) / @GenKlytusEyes (Letterboxd) | Contributing Writer
Working within a corporate environment is a nightmare. Endless honeycomb cubicles illuminated by migraine-inducing beams. The average student, yet to begin their careers, does not need to look far into the future to dread this environment. Cinema can be escapist through entertaining storytelling and fantastical worlds but it can also contain commentary on the reality of life today.
In preparation for entering a corporate environment, you may feel fear, anxiety, and even excitement. It's a new chapter of life and a new world. So here are seven films that depict this enviroment, for the better and the worse.
Sub-Prime mortgages, stock shorting, credit ratings. What does it all mean? Characters within The Big Short, a film about the 2008 financial crisis constantly speak in these terms. But these jargony phrases are often explained in the film by celebrities, like Margot Robbie and Anthony Bourdain who break the fourth wall.
The Big Short details three separate but coinciding stories of those who uncover the malfeasance of the banks and get rich off the subsequent financial crisis. With a cast saturated with A-listers, Steve Carrell, Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, and Jeremy Strong, to name a few, the film is a thrilling comedy.
Although the film is about how an economic system can ruin lives, it tells the story in a clever, satirical, and serendipitous way. Like the hit TV show Succession, the quick movements, snap zooms, and minimal cuts add to the subtle humour and flippancy of the corporate environment the film's characters live within.
With the American economy on the brink of collapse, financial institutions, the perpetrators of this crisis, find it unbelievable that The Big Short’s characters would foresee a recession. As the stories of our characters converge as they profit off this crisis, the question is whether they are heroes for sticking it to these financial institutions, who took excessive risks or are they the enemy for profiting off this collapse.
The pervasive glare of men and self-doubt run throughout this film. Julia Garner plays the titular assistant. A young, ambitious female aspiring to be a producer in the entertainment industry. To advance this goal she becomes an assistant to a unseen Weinstein-like executive of a prominent New York production company. She does her job perfectly. Nonetheless, she gets ignored and blamed for her male colleague’s mistakes.
With grey hues and tight blocking within small rooms there is a persistent claustrophobia, transforming an office into an unnerving sanctum. With oppressive lighting, office lamps or computer screen, Garner despite being taken advantage of continues to work tirelessly, not wanting to hurt her career chances. With limited lines, she has to act out loneliness, helplessness and a burdening sense of guilt through her body language and eyes.
With parallels to the present day, The Assistant recognises the silence and loneliness women often feel in the workplace. The film is a searing critique of corporate Weinstein-like environments where women are forced to turn a blind eye and endure sexism and misogyny for the sake of their careers.
Set at Initech, a fictitious but typical software company, Office Space is a horribly relatable spoof on corporate environments and workplace culture filled with the constant nagging of middle management, malfunctioning office equipment, and obnoxious co-workers.
Our main character, Peter Gibbons, played by Ron Livingston, is a stereotypical office worker imprisoned in his cubicle. When introduced to Gibbons we immediately empathise with his struggle with the repetitious mundane nature of work. After a visit to a hypnotist, Gibbons rids his mind of the worry and stress poured out on him at Initech and gets promoted. From then on Gibbons is ‘free’ from the banality of work. The audience wants to be him. He plays Tetris at work, gets his office crush, ignores his boss, and finally lives his life how he wants to.Office Space hits too close to home, yet the humour makes this film a wickedly entertaining and cathartic watch. Masterfully, the film exaggerates everyday workplace events and will have you laughing through the painful recognition of all-too-familiar situations.
Nearly 100 years old, the 1927 film Metropolis tells of a warning that humanity ignored. The film explores the conflicts that occur between different classes of citizens within an industrialised society.
Though a silent film, Fritz Lang directs a series of amazing vignettes of monstrous machines devouring workers. A visual allegory of the machines built by other men destroying those who man oppresses. Accompanying the epic visuals, the actor's expressions convey the pure, raw emotion of the moment. The bow heads of the single-filed lines of the citizens of the worker city evoke the depressing hopelessness of the proletariats. This is a contrast with the opulence and indulgence emitting from the wealthy industrialists who live in the spectacular altar they have built for themselves.The prophetic warning told by Metropolis is that as humanity prospers and we create magnificent machines, we should not use them as tools for our apotheosis and the subjection of others. However, as we build an improved society, we should all benefit from prosperity and technology to have a better life and pursue happiness.
Working is hard enough, but imagine having no future in a job and being paid to be in a prison. This was the experience of those who worked at the cotton mill in Norma Rae. Until one day, they decided to change the exploitative and brutal workplace conditions so as to give a hopeful future for them and their kids.
A labour organiser, Reuben (Ron Leibman), comes to town to start a union at the cotton mill, but at first, he is dismissed as this bombastic outsider from New York who knows nothing about the town and its people. But his charismatic and energetic passion for the cause convinces some like the film's titular character, Norma Rae (Sally Fields) to join his cause. With Reuben's passion and Norma Rae’s hunger for change, both attempt to endure the tribulations thrown at them by the mill’s union busting management.
The conditions our characters try to change are shown in the ferocious thunderous noise of violent machinery. Factory workers are drenched in sweat with small earplugs most do not wear. There is no essential fulfilment of fundamental human wellbeing. There is no air conditioning, no PPE, and no health care when workers get injured. Nothing. The mill’s management can cut pay at any time and when a union is about to form they sow racial division to undermine the cause.
At its core, Norma Rae speaks to the resilient human spirit. In the most ruthless of environments against the most cruel systems, humans can endure and fight for change.
In The Apartment, C.C Baxter (Jack Lemmon), a lowly insurance accountant, lets upper management use his apartment to have extramarital affairs with women they find or work with. In exchange, Baxter gets recommended for promotion.
Despite its comical angle, The Apartment is a punk rock film of its time, speaking against the cultural norms of the 50s and 60s. It takes serious topics like abuse and using women for sexual pleasure, and explores the effects on the women who are exploited. Moreover, The Apartment casts a dark shadow of disdain over its male characters who encourage and or engage in these actions. Conversely, we empathise with our lead female character, Fran (Shirley MacLaine), who allows herself to be exploited by a man she is in love with.The Apartment is rightly a classic; its mix of genres never feels imbalanced or striking but complementary. The film develops characters which are not black or white, but a thousand shades of grey. Baxter is charming yet he facilitates the exploitation of women so as to further his career ambitions.
Working is displayed as a separate life in The Apartment. Except for our main character whose life is consumed by work, causing a separation and not a realisation of his own and others' humanity. While a career could feel like a different world, The Apartment affirms that we must retain our humanity in how we treat others.
Tokyo Sonata is a sharp Japanese drama that intricately tells a powerful message about how a father (Teruyuki Kagawa) loses his job and what that means for his family. He doesn’t tell anyone, to avoid humilition, and lives a double life, leaving the house everyday in a suit as he attempts to find employment.
As the father and his lies are revealed, Tokyo Sonata offers commentary on the purpose having a career gives to a person. His relationship with his family unravels. The clash and deterioration of familial relationships begin when the hopes and dreams of him and his family's careers are destroyed. The film is a unique insight and exploration into Japanese culture and its relationship between work and home life.
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